About the Authors or Illustrators

Jerry Spinelli won the Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee, the sixth of his more than fifteen acclaimed books for young readers. Growing up, he wanted to be a shortstop in the majors long before it occurred to him to be a writer. Crash came out of his desire to include the beloved PennRelays of his home state of Pennsylvania in a book. And, of course, to show the world a little bit about athletes and what makes some of them tick.